Japanese words: komorebi, tsundoku, wabi-sabi and mono no aware

Some Japanese words describe experiences that would require an entire sentence in English. Terms such as komorebi, tsundoku, wabi-sabi and mono no aware distil ways of noticing nature, possessions, time and emotions, illustrating how a language can turn highly particular sensations into everyday concepts.

Why are some Japanese words so difficult to translate?

A literal translation does not always retain every cultural association carried by a word. Some Japanese terms convey an image, an emotion and an interpretation of an experience simultaneously, which makes it virtually impossible to find one equivalent term in another language.

That does not mean these experiences can only be felt by Japanese people. The distinction is that there is an established word to name them, making it possible to discuss a complex phenomenon without having to explain it from scratch.

What do komorebi and tsundoku mean?

Komorebi refers to sunlight passing through gaps between leaves and branches, creating patches and shafts of light on the ground. Tsundoku, meanwhile, names a very familiar habit among book lovers: buying books intending to read them, then allowing them to pile up as more keep arriving.

• Komorebi: sunlight filtered through the leaves of trees;
• Tsundoku: the habit of buying books and building up copies that have not yet been read;
• Both words turn ordinary situations into easily recognisable concepts;
• One concerns observing nature, while the other describes an everyday habit.

How does wabi-sabi find beauty in imperfection?

Wabi-sabi is linked to an aesthetic that finds beauty in what is unfinished, irregular and marked by the passage of time. A well-used ceramic piece, aged wood or an asymmetrical surface may be appreciated precisely because it does not look new or perfectly uniform.

The concept also encompasses transience. Objects wear down, seasons come to an end and materials change in appearance, making transformation part of beauty itself rather than something that must necessarily be concealed.

What does mono no aware mean?

Mono no aware describes a sensitivity to the fleeting nature of things. It is a blend of appreciation and melancholy felt when something becomes more precious precisely because we know it will not remain that way forever.

• Cherry blossom is valued with the knowledge that it will last only briefly;
• One season ends as another begins;
• Happy moments can feel more intense because they are not permanent;
• Objects and places bear traces of the people who have passed through them;
• The passage of time is seen not only as loss, but also as part of an experience’s value.

Portuguese also has words that are difficult to translate

This quality is not exclusive to Japanese. Brazilian Portuguese has terms such as “cafuné”, describing the affectionate gesture of running one’s fingers through someone’s hair. Other languages can explain the action, but are unlikely to have one word containing exactly the same blend of movement and affection.

It is this kind of distinctiveness that makes supposedly untranslatable words so interesting. Komorebi, tsundoku, wabi-sabi and mono no aware show how vocabulary can preserve particular ways of perceiving light, books, imperfection and the passing of time, while “cafuné” demonstrates that every language holds experiences that fit perfectly into one word only within its own cultural context.